Mayor

Last weekend's kick-off of City Council President Mary Pat Clarke's mayoral campaign shows she is in the race, win or lose. Theoretically, she has ample time to change her mind before September's primary, but that would damage her credibility and dampen her supporters' enthusiasm.Ms. Clarke's challenge to Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is to be applauded. In seeking a second term four years ago, Mr. Schmoke snubbed his two opponents. He declined to debate one-time mayor Clarence "Du" Burns and former state's attorney William A. Swisher.

Even though we regret Kurt Schmoke's stiff-arming of the city's League of Women Voters by dropping out of last night's scheduled debate among mayoral candidates, we nevertheless endorse the mayor for renomination.Politically speaking, the mayor no doubt was correct in hiscalculation that he is so far ahead in the polls that his presence at a debate could only benefit his challengers. But an appearance by Schmoke would have done more than merely give "free air time" to former Mayor Clarence Du Burns.

Who should be mayor of Annapolis for the next four years? The question can be answered only after Annapolitans decide what kind of a city they want to live in during the 1990s and beyond.Most would agree that Maryland's state capital must strike a balance between its role as a historic tourist town and as a working city with a thriving economy. It should be a safe place. It should be a harmonious place, where citizens are not separated by class, race or their interests as business people and residents.

In his enthusiasm on becoming mayor eight years ago, Kurt L. Schmoke cautioned against thinking of him as a permanent mayor. Two terms should be enough. He had other things to accomplish, more worlds to conquer.But game plans change in mid-game. Never mind what Mr. Schmoke originally thought he could achieve for the city and its people. This time, he wanted to go on being mayor for the sake of being mayor because that is what he does.Mr. Schmoke is vindicated.Incumbent mayors normally win, often against mere token opposition.

For a possible $5 million gain -- one-quarter of 1 percent of the city's $2 billion budget -- Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke is willing to set back regionalism, annoy potential allies in the suburbs and unintentionally fuel the most negative perceptions about city government.Is that really worth $5 million?That's roughly the amount Mayor Schmoke said city coffers eventually would gain if all city employees were required to live in Baltimore as a condition of employment. The mayor has ordered that, as of July 1, any new hire would have to agree to move into the city within a year.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's call to raise Baltimore's piggyback income tax from 50 percent to 52 percent to hire more police officers is a sound idea -- if he can convince City Council members and residents that the money will be spent with pinpoint effectiveness.Yes, the city's real estate tax rate is double that of its suburban neighbors, but that imbalance will be there for a long time and is not just cause for inertia. Violent crime, up about 30 percent from a decade ago, has driven away middle-class residents and businesses and casts a pall on efforts to attract anyone in their place.

MAYOR MARTIN O'Malley has opened another door for his Monday morning quarterbacks. Responding to the recent spate of fires set in public schools, Mr. O'Malley noted that the funds for art projects had been cut. As a result, students planning to participate in a school band or a theater production of The Wiz would have their hopes either postponed or eliminated. He detected a sense of deep disappointment that was regrettably expressed. Immediately, pundits and talk-show hosts mocked the mayor's observations.

THE POLITICAL self-mutilation of Joan Pratt has been astonishing, stalling the newly elected city comptroller's meteoric rise. Which is just as well. At least this way she is unlikely to become the mayor of Baltimore.Mayor Pratt?Even before this political novice won the Democratic primary nomination for the city's No. 3 office in September, she was telling anyone willing to listen that she intended to run for mayor. Never mind that she had no experience in politics or any proven track record in public office.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke traveled to the East Baltimore stronghold of his chief political rival yesterday to trumpet $17 million in development projects in four neighborhoods along the Harford Road corridor.One of the projects announced by the mayor includes a $103,000 city loan to build two bars, lounges and meeting rooms in the clubhouse of the Poets' Athletic Club, a non-profit fraternal organization of former Paul Laurence Dunbar High School athletes.Another project the mayor announced was the construction of a Rite Aid Discount Pharmacy on city-owned land that had been vacant since riots swept through the area in the late 1960s.